How to make a Breakfast Smoothie
Getting Ready
The most important part of the smoothie is the ingredients. If you don't have good ingredients, your smoothie is likely to not be as healthy and nutritious as you would like. Be sure to pick out only the best you can find. No matter where you are, there will always be some ingredients with which to make a smoothie to add to your family's diet.
First off, I recommend having a really good blender, like the Vitamix. It's a blender that can handle the frozen fruits, seeds and everything you throw in it. I've never had a problem with it breaking down on me. If there ever was something, it was my fault. For the smoothies, you will be needing fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, so it's imperative to have a good blender.
I think having plenty of good greens in a day is important, so putting in a ton of greens is always a good idea. With the what we will be putting in, you won't even be able to taste it unless we use stronger, more bitter greens, such as dandelion or kale. There are plenty of greens out there to choose.
Spinach is a mild green that you can put tons of in and still not taste. It's loaded iron and minerals that will be able to help sustain growing bodies.
Wheat grass will add a minty quality to the smoothie.It is a very healthy addition to any smoothie and I add it in almost ever smoothie I make. With as many nutrients as it has, it's always highly recommended.
Kale, while it is bitter, if you buy baby kale, you will be fine. It's a lot more mild that way. This green is so packed full of vitamins and minerals it's called a super green.
Dandelion has a lot of nutrition for you but it can be really bitter unless you get it in the first of spring. It, however, has a lot minerals and vitamins, such as a full range of B vitamins.
There are plenty more that can be named but go and experiment. If you like chard, put that in. If you find some greens at the store that are on sale or that you like, get them and put them in too. I don't put them all in at the same time though. Usually, you will put one variety of greens in with the rest going in another day.
Now, there are also a lot of powders and liquids that can be added in. You will always want liquids in you smoothie or it will be a large mess that can't be sipped. Some of the powders you can add in are: Protein powders, powdered greens and vegetables, powder vitamins and minerals and breakfast meal replacements. I use Garden of Life perfect berry and greens, Biolife meal replacement, and vegetable protein.
I like to add in grapefruit juice and/or orange juice just for the added benefits and taste rather than water. If it's water, you will be tasting the greens and vegetables more. You can also add in water to make it not so sweet.
Next, we will be the frozen fruits. My personal favorite is the tropical fruits. You will often need to add in frozen fruits so that smoothie stays cold. Especially with a vitamix blender as it can cook your smoothie. We wouldn't want that now would we? Banana is one of the best ones you can add. It has plenty of vitamins in it, enough to be called a super food. It also adds a creamy aspect to your smoothie and sweetens it so the greens don't stand out so much. Frozen berries will also sweeten it and make it a lot more palatable to pickier tastebuds, not to mention the added benefits of their nutrition.
Putting It All Together
Putting all of your ingredients together is as simple as it seems. At first, I like to put one of my juices or water with airborne in it(It adds a fizzy aspect to the smoothie too!). After about a glass of juice, I put in greens up to about three fourths of the blender. I don't know if other blenders are very good as I've only used the vitamix. If your blender handles making the greens a juice like quality, then awesome! I love my smoothies to be just that, smooth, and that's what the vitamix does for me.
After the greens and liquid, I put in the powders and seeds that I like. I put a scoop of protein powder, two scoops of meal replacement, two tablespoons of chia seeds, a half of a scoop of Perfect Berry and Perfect Greens. My sister also adds in Veonaturals powders like Energy.
Next will be the fruits, frozen and fresh. I put a cup of frozen fruit and a large banana. With that, the only thing left is to add in more juice or water up to cover all the greens.
The vitamix only takes a couple minutes at most to finish blending everything and even has an automatic setting. On a normal blender, blend the ingredients until smooth which may take a few minutes longer.
Your smoothie is ready now. Pour into your glasses and serve immediately. It can be saved in glass jars or a pitcher for twenty four hours before it starts to separate which means it's no longer any good.